Luka Modrić played 70 minutes Sunday in a 3-0 victory over Cadiz. However, he was taken off with an apparent quad issue which will need to be monitored this week. Modrić received a 7.0 rating from Goal.com as he had “A composed performance in the middle of the park. Unlucky not to score after lashing one off the post. Removed with an apparent quad issue. Still wonderful to watch, even at 38.” Modrić blistered a shot off the left post in the 2nd half before laying off the ball to Rodrygo for his second goal of the match. With the win, Real Madrid go into Monday with a 1-point lead over Girona.
Nenad Bjelica is the new manager at Union Berlin, Bundesliga.com reports. He will be joining Croatian international, Josip Juranović, in the German capital as the Champions League club currently sits in the relegation zone; with only seven points from the first 12 matches of the season. In the past three seasons, Bjelica has been in charge of Dinamo Zagreb, NK Osijek, and Turkish club Trabzonspor. This will be a successful move for Bjelica if he can keep the club in the Bundesliga next season. They are currently only two points from safety.
Joško Gvardiol remained on the bench Saturday in Manchester City’s 1-1 draw against Liverpool. City manager, Pep Guardiola, did not use one sub during the match and marched out a 3-2-4-1 formation against the Reds. City has Champions League group play this week, but if Pep keeps a “3 in the back” formation this season, will that force Gvardiol to the bench in his first campaign with the club? Mateo Kovačić was not part of the squad and is expected to miss 2-3 more weeks with a quad injury. Kova should be back around Christmas.
Other than that, it was an extremely quiet week for Croatians playing in Europe. Ante Budimir cooled off and did not add to his La Liga scoring total this weekend. He remains on seven goals after Osasuna’s 3-1 loss to Villarreal Sunday.
As e.g. let’s go thru minute 28 thru 29 of the Armenia game
Suggest you watch it again
A lot of people have blaimed Gvardiol for being “too aggressive at half-way line” on this play – he actually was perfect during this play and was only compensating for others mistakes
28:20 – the Armenia #7 strolls thru Modric / Brozovic – Broz spends the next 10 seconds chasing him towards Stanisic. Croatia eventually get the ball back.
Take-away: Broz mistake
28:30-45 – Ivanusec is almost in middle of the park (for some reason). Made it easy for Armenia to switch up from left side to right side of the park. Ivanusec was then strolling to cover the Armenia right-back (he should have been there to tackle / kick ball out of play) who was allowed to get the ball forward
Take-away: Ivanusec mistake
28:50 – Ball gets past Ivanusec towards next Armenia player. Croatia back 4 are playing 1 v 1 (man on man) on the front 4 Armenia player, while also keeping a very high line. Sosa left too much space (in context of this 1 v 1) – didn’t track his man back aggressively enough – so the player was able to get the ball off to player Gvardiol was tracking (who was correctly tracking his player closely).
Take-away: Sosa mistake
28:55 – Gvardiol is rightly tracking his man aggressively (in context of high-line and also 1 vs 1 (man marking) and closes him down). The Armenia player passes it back to midfielder who than lobs the ball over top. Croatia was playing a high-line – but if you look at far side Stanisic was cheating back towards Croatia net (bc he wanted 5 yards head start vs. Armenia left-winger) and as a result broke the high-line which allowed the Armenia right-winger to be onside (otherwise he would have been caught in off-side trap)
Take-away: Stanisic mistake. Also Sosa 2nd mistake – for not tracking his man back aggressively back towards Croatia goal
At no point in play above did Gvardiol make a mistake – he’s actually the only who fulfilled his duty. If he hadn’t been “so aggressive at the half-way line” nothing on the play changes (the man he marking still gets the ball back to the midfielder – he was trying to close him down quickly trying to force an errant pass, etc)
In Turkey game
Gvardiol correctly keeps the Turkish player to the outside (of course Barisic is nowhere to be seeing – instead holding hand up for off-side) – while Livakovic comes out of his goal into no-mans land (if he stayed in his net – Gvardiol was right there to keep him on the outside / shut him down)
Take-away: Livakovic mistake / Barisic sleeping
In Wales game
1st goal – Wales keeper boots the ball down the pitch – than Broz for some reason decides to kick the ball back blindly on a volley – which goes to the player Gvardiol marking – who kicks the ball forward on a volley
Take-away: Broz mistake / Vida mistake
2nd goal – Vida didn’t mark man closely enough and/or jump to head the ball
None of these goals did Gvardiol make any kind of mistake – it’s not there
Anonymous, respect your thoughts on the recent defensive mistakes.
Here’s my take.
Turkey goal – Gvardiol defending right on the halfway line and leaving a huge space behind him for a through ball over the top. That is not the way to defend for a CB as you do not have anyone to cover for you if there is a through ball over the top.
Gvardiol should have been 5-10 meters from the halfway line and one of our midfielders should have picked up the Turkish forward on the halfway line. In this case you cannot blame the fullbacks because they have to follow the two stoppers to keep the defensive line and tray to catch the opposing players in offside.
Initial mistake or poor positioning by Gvardiol and then by Livakovic who should have stayed on his line.
Against Armenia – Gvardiol follows the opposing forward over the halfway line and near the byline, again leaving a huge hole in the defence for a through ball. That is precisely what the opposition wants you to do, get you out of position and then exploit the defensive hole with a through ball.
Gvardiol should have stayed in his defensive position and got one of our midfielders or even instruct Sosa to pick the Armenian player. Agree Sosa should have covered for Gvardiol but was caught ball watching and out of position. Yes, you could also argue that had Stanisic been in line with Sutalo and Sosa it might have been offside.
It’s risky playing offside so close to the halfway line because if you make a mistake its usually 1 on 1 with the goalkeeper unless you have a Speedy Gonzales in your defence.
Initial mistake by Gvardiol, followed by Sosa and then Stanisic.
With the Wales first goal, Gvardiol was marking his player really tight and close and was up his behind you could say. That sort of defending is good if its inside the penalty box. In that particular situation Gvardiol should have been close to him however slightly to the right of the Welsh player. This possibly could have prevented the Welsh player from flicking the ball into the path for their eventual goal scorer or possibly giving Gvardiol an opportunity to intercept the miskick from Brozovic.
This is just an observation and I do not blame him for any of the Welsh goals.
Thanks both of you for the very civil, interesting, and detail time-consuming analysis. Will be reading a couple of times to absorb it all. Appreciate your posts!
Saying that talking about Gvardiol, in other than glowing God like he terms, is apparently the current litmus test for Croatian patriotism, or at least, the test of a moron, I believe is ridiculous standard. Reminds me of when US citizens were not allowed to question if Iraq had shortages of mass destruction before US spend trillion of dollars on a half dozen wars, that left USA 35 trillion dollars in debt currently.
Gvardiol is great player for the record, and maybe one of the best, when everything is said and done, but I think, we should be able to discuss the multiple reasons for moments of weakness in the defense of recent, without feeling like we are stepping on holy ground, or being offensive. Do we have to wait under Gvardiol retires now, before we talk about any drop off of the Croatian defensive effort moving forward. Gvardiol fundamentalist is at a scary level currently. Give him a while to grow into our complete idolization at the very least.
Mrš nazad preko Drine!!!
lol! with that, na kratkom mostu. Very well, until we lose on another unaddressed counterattack breakaway, I will keep silent. There is nothing to see here, keep moving along folks!
Kromiza, you have the right to express your views on here without being intimidated or insulted by others how do not agree with you.
I hope that this will not discourage you from further posts.
You raise a lot of good points about Gvardiol, however I must disagree with your statement that Gvardiol is a great player. Gvardiol is a very good player at 21 and is still learning his trade.
Greatness is judged over a long period of time, and this will be the case with Gvardiol in 10 -15 years’ time ? if he plays for that long.
He is on the right path but has a long way to go before being recognised as one of the greats of the game, only time will tell.
Thanks Mart for your kind words. I was just going to cross the LA river on a short bridge, before I got your e-mail.
I don’t disagree. The header goal alone in the Morrocco game has to go down as one of the top set pieces in Croatian history, at a young age of 21.
I like everything about him especially as everyone said, a down- to-earth man with a great off field demeanor and character. I was just saying, a general critique on defense, of how to approve on fastbreak counter attacks, is not a personal attack on Josko. per se.
I hope he can stay healthy and play as long as Simunic , Lovren. He is a workhorse.
Thanks again
Yes, I agree about the header against Morocco. His defensive performance against Belgium kept us in the WC and has to go down as one of the greatest defensive displays at any World Cup in history by anyone.
I hope that he gets more opportunities at Man City to play as a CB and with good performances prove to Pep that he belongs there. I think that is what will happen in time to come as he gains more experience in the EPL, otherwise why would you pay 90 mil for a 21-year-old and try to make a LB out of him or having him sit on the bench.
Really nice Gvardiol pre-CL interview just now
Such a pleasant young man w/ good head on his shoulder
Anyone throwing shade at him on his is a moron
He didn’t even have a pre-season at Man City (you’ll recall when Modric joined Madrid with didn’t have a pre-season either) – it’s remarkable how much playing time he’s already gotten if you think about it
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVJAtrUkhNc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMzlYBmGxmY
I would like to try the cheese @ 6:52
Yup the dude is 21
Pretty darn mature. Skies the limit
We have given many older guys longer leashes on here
We have to Let him grow up
If baturina and sucic pan out with gvardiol behind
We can definitely be competitive with these pieces
Others will come
Yes, the “others will come” piece is most important.
It’s too early to predict who becomes what, and a lot youngsters get too much hype before they fully develop and mature.
You’ll see a lot of the regular cynics on here harping on about how Coric, Balic and Halilovic were busts (as if that means anything), but none of that matters.
We had a guy like Gvardiol seemingly come out of nowhere, but in reality, there is a pool of dozens of elite young prospects at each age group and you have to hit on a few. Some will get early hype, but others will be under the radar.
An example is how Kacavenda was hyped as the next big thing, and now he’s injured and likely not going to pan out…but now suddenly we have Martin Baturina to take his place.
You’ve got Gvardiol himself just a few days ago calling out a 17 year-old striker (Anton Matković) as Croatia’s next big player, and I doubt anyone here has even heard of this kid (I sure didn’t).
Lots of random prospects littered all over the HNL, the junior leagues, and foreign leagues like Zvonarek, Simic, Sucic, Vuskovic, Brajkovic, Stojkovic, Perkovic, Crnac, this Matković kid, etc. Nobody knows who will pan out. What’s most important is that we have a lot to choose from.
https://x.com/MadridXtra/status/1729110234269204976?s=20
A big week ahead for Feyenoord… home to Atletico on Tuesday as they fight to get out of the group and on Sunday, home to league leaders PSV in a 1st vs 2nd place matchup. PSV are 7 points ahead so Feyenoord needs a win here to catch up with them.
Come on Ivanusec!💪
CM – Luka Modric – 8/10 – Set up one of Rodrygo’s two goals, and was generally vey, very impressive on and off the ball (as per).
Hit the left post before straining his hamstring.
Needs a break.
It’s a shame he got hurt, just as it looks like he would get more playing time (since Camavinga and Tchouameni are out with injury).
Speedy recovery to the King!
Modric coming off, looking a bit hurt. Has played great.
Everyone here takes for granted Gvardiol will be our future star. But was anyone impressed with him the last few games for us? I wasn’t. In fact he looked sloppy at times, going for risky interceptions because of poor positioning.
Yes he made a bunch of mistakes, but he’s still going to be a star.
Did you ever watch Ronaldo play when he was 21?
He was also criticized at times and was even labeled a one trick pony by the media.
These are growing pains and Gvardiol will have them, considering how young he is.
His World Cup performance for us at age 20 was the best all time performance by a CB in our history. He’s still an up and coming star, and no, we’re not taking it for granted. 😉
He’s been pushing forward too much lately for us (not sure if he’s been directed to do so) but I don’t expect this to be a regular issue.
He probably respects these teams a little less than the ones he faced at the World Cup (which is why he made no such mistakes back then) and that’s a maturity thing. It’s better to judge at the actual Euros.
Everyone has bad games. It happens when you are still young. Go back to the Spain game at the Euros and his play at LB was ugly. That is not his best position and you will not get the best out of him.
https://www.instagram.com/p/C0HDMHZqjFJ/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
Nice move for Bjelica. Hopefully it works out for Juranovic as well.
Oh wow. That’s a really good move for him.
How did he score that?
I have no idea other than pure speculation. I’m hoping that HNS somehow planted him there so that he could replace Dalic after Euro 24.
Lol.
So he gets fired after 6 months so he could take over the National Team? Haha
I like Bjelica as a coach, but it seems like he’s less diplomatic than Dalić and fights with people.
He’s reminding me of Tudor a bit. Talented coach but can’t keep a job because he reacts too negatively to the surrounding politics.
I don’t get the vibe that the HNS likes him much. He’s not really the team player type.
We have some decent coaches but I’m worried that they’ll just throw a Bišćan type in there instead.
He doesn’t have to get fired, lol. Plenty of people quit their jobs.
As for HNS not liking him, perhaps you’re right, but they did post this on their Instagram. They regularly post things about any player or coach that’s ever donned or led the checkers, but I’m not sure that I’ve ever seen them post about a coach who hasn’t.
My guess is they hire Olic or Corluka as the next coach. Dalic’s only success was in Saudi or UAE. Not sure where he coached before. So maybe there is an outsider, but something telling me they stay with current staff.
Who in Europe has had a successful career as a manager. Bjelica is a strange guy. Tudor bounces around. Kovac we have already seen and fans would revolt if he came back. His style of soccer was too negative. Juric in Italy. He has rescued a few clubs from relegation and had decent results with mid table clubs. Lasting that many years in Serie A brings experience.
Hiring Olić or Ćorluka would be a disaster, and I would become the new AZ poster on this site if that happened.
To be fair, we’ve never promoted an assistant coach no matter who they were (and we had a long list of big name former players as our assistant coaches). It’s always been a new hire.
Tudor and Bjelica are good coaches, but wear their emotions on their sleeves.
Petković was great for Switzerland andcis currently unemployed.
Jurić is a well respected coach in Serie A, but his team is treading water. Maybe they let him go.
Kek was a missed opportunity. He should have been our coach before Dalić stepped in.
Terzić has too good a thing with Borussia Dortmund right now.
Guys like Kovač and Bilić should be out of the question.
If we want to break the bank, we can always jump on a foreign Italian coach like Ancelotti since his contract expires next year.
If we want to go cheap, there are a lot of random coaches like Jovićević, Goran Tomić, etc..who would jump on this chance and have at least equal experience that Dalić has.
I can’t see guys like Olić or Ćorluka being given the opportunity. Too much risk.
“Kek appointed b4 Dalic”?? You lost me, Dalic is the most successful coach in HNS history! WC final and SF, Nations league Final and qualifying for every tourney! Wow….
Dalic turned out to be good, but he was a “coin toss” hire.
Hiring guys like Bilic, Stimac, Kovac, Dalic are all hires that could go either way.
Kek was far more proven at the time and was a guy that we should have pursued harder. He was the right hire at the time, but we went with another risky move (that lucky worked out).
When Dalic leaves, we can’t do this same thing again. We need to go after proven coaches and go after them hard…and not do what we have been doing in the past.
We are lucky that Dinamo botched their season and Biscan got fired for it, because he was (for sure) being groomed to be our next coach before he got fired at Dinamo. Not sure who the HNS has in mind for our next coach, but I hope they’re not going to just go the “former player” rookie coach route.
Nobody could have seen this from Dalic. We lucked out. After missing on previous hires like Kovac and Stimac, picking Dalic was a “hope” that worked out.
I don’t know enough about Petkovic to comment, but he seems to be well respected. I’d like to see Terzic or Juric takeover the repka one day, however I can’t see that happening, unless they are without a job at the right time. Juric is very well respected in Italy, and Teric seems to be a very intelligent and passionate young coach. He’s half Croatian, and I believe he has Croatian citizenship. He also did some “scouting work” for the repka, when Bilic when he was our coach. Dortmund is his hometown club, and he is living his dream now, so I can’t imagine he would resign.
Terzić would be ideal. He’s half Croat but acts full Croat and is raised in the German Croatian diaspora. But his career is going to good to interrupt it right now.
Hopefully he gets fired at Dortmund haha.
Jurić would be interesting. Only worry is his team has remained sideways, but ownership also doesn’t want to spend. He’s apparently a good tactician.
Petković is experienced as well, but he did very poorly in the French league and his team was relegated. It’s likely not his fault though, as the team had mediocre talent.
However, I get worried when coaches get too old. They begin to check out after a certain age.
Bjelica would be a good value hire that would cost far less than these guys, but he’s been losing his jobs lately. He’s a bit of a hothead I think.
But he’s definitely an overachiever with squads that he takes over.
Hope this stint at Union turns out to be longer and more successful. When he was at Trabzonspor, he brought in a few Hrvati and I’m hoping he’ll do the same again but first he must save the club from relegation. One player he is familiar with and whom I hope he will bring to Union (possibly on loan) is… Dion Beljo.
Yes, on the surface it seems to be a good move for Bjelica, but right now Union are a sinking ship. They overachieved for the last few seasons, and I think they’ve become victims of their own success. They are a low budget team, that doesn’t have the depth required to compete in the Bundesliga, and the Champions League at the same time. Good luck to Bjelica, I hope he can turn things around.
Just turned on the Cagliari-Monza match and one Mirko Maric scored five minutes after being subbed on. Sign him up! lol.
Ake is better defensively..guardiola trusts him more..and he is MOTM too with nice assist..gvardiol needs to fight back his spot at LB now
Yes, Gvardiol will need to fight for the LB position with Ake. Pep Guardiola in a recent interview stated that he is yet to be convinced that Gvardiol is ready to play as a CB. It is a long season in EPL so I’m sure that Gvardiol will get a lot of time on the pitch as Pep likes to rotate his playing roster.
But for sure he is not by any means guaranteed a starting 11 spot in a team like Man City full of quality players.
Gvardiol is not a LB! Can we not understand this???
Yes we can, but tell that to his coach Pep Guardiola who does not think and has stated that Gvardiol is not good enough yet to play as a central defender for Man City. So, it is either LB or the bench.
Bench I guess. Because lb out of the question
Correct.
Both Ruben Dias and Gvardiol are two of the best CBs on the planet.
It’s just that Pep likes to go three at the back, so only one will play.
Dias is the veteran player who’s been on Man City for years, and Gvardiol is the next big thing.
Dias has seniority, but Pep likes to give Gvardiol game time at LB too, but it will always be a secondary position for him.
AZ and MART know their stuff, but they are two of the most cynical posters on this site. AZ only comes out when something bad happens and strictly posts negative things.
MART is better, but he also has far too little faith in Croatian football at times. I like his posts, but thinking that we’ll be a fringe qualification team after Modric leaves (even if Baturina and Sucic pan out) is just too much.
I’m not saying I know my stuff . I’m just a huge fan.
Maminjo, we all have differing opinions and I respect everyone’s on this site apart from one or two lunatics.
I do not think that I’m cynical I’m just being realistic. I do worry about us qualifying for the next World Cup? Why? because Modric is leaving and some of the other players are getting on and may not be around like Perisic. I do not think at the moment that we have the depth. We all saw what happened in October when we had numerous injuries and players out of form. Two loses like that in the upcoming 2026 WC qualifiers and in all probability, you won’t make it.
Yes, we have a lot of promising and talented players around however many are yet to prove themselves at club level let alone on the international stage. Few will succeed but in reality, majority will never make it. That is why I think that next couple of years could be difficult for us especially after the EURO.
It will be critical for us to maintain our ranking and to do this we need to have a good EURO and perform well in the upcoming NL which starts in 2024.
When the qualifying draw for the 2026 WC comes around, we need to be seeded and to achieve this we need to be among top 12 UEFA teams. Currently we are 8th or 9th? There will be 12 groups of 4 or 5 teams with only the group winners progressing to the WC. Twelve runners up and 4 NL group winners go to the playoffs, with 4 teams to progress to the WC.
From what I have read, all the UEFA WC qualifiers will be played in September, October and November 2025 and the playoffs in March 2026.
Lunatics I agree with
We’re 8th.
But the teams ranked 4th to 8th are very close together in points.
Then there is a notable dropoff in points for the next four ranked teams (Switzerland, Germany, Denmark, Ukraine).
Sweden is 13th and we’d have to drop below them to become unseeded. Since Sweden missed the Euros and won’t be able to rise as a result, we would have to rely on the next few teams (Austria, Wales, Serbia) to make a deep run along with Ukraine (if they qualify), Denmark, Switzerland, and Germany…and we’d have to choke badly since there is a 200-point gap they’d all have to make up. Oh, and Italy and those teams that are narrowly ahead of us would need to have decent tournaments as well to stay ahead of us.
We’d probably have to finish last in our group, and have the Euro quarterfinals filled with a few Pot 4 teams like Switzerland, Ukraine, and Serbia to maybe surpass us.
I can’t see it happening.
We have enough depth and we will make all major tournaments up to 2032 Euros.
And if we don’t it wont be because of talent or depth, it’ll be because coaching or internal bullshit.
But I still stick by prediction. All major tournaments for the next 10 years, qualified.
I mean if Pep’s plan is to slowly introduce Gvardiol into that role then it’s not the worst thing
Why isn’t Marco pasalic in the lineup for Rijeka?
Suspended too many yellow cards.
Thanks MART, been trying to find out. Glad to know it’s not an injury. I’m a bit concerned about his long-term fitness given the injuries he had had back in Germany.
Gvardiol is playing in big match after big match.
He can play CB or LB at the highest level.
He is still 21!
His presence will make Sosa better as a LB/LWB as well as any right CB pairing with Erlic/Šutalo.
Gvardiol transcends his position on the pitch. He is the next world class nogometaš candidate for us.
Just competing against Liverpool today for first place in the EPL is an accomplishment for a 21 year old.
That header against Morocco in a hostile environment with a bias ref shows you what type of leader he can become.
Most likely on the bench ? He has had two matches for the national team with the last match on Tuesday. I don’t think that Pep will risk starting him in case of overload and possible injury ?
Gvardiol will feature in 70-80% of City’s games this season. He is rested as he is playing CL against his former club on Tuesday.
OK. But he’s not a left back ffs